All posts in Multiplatform Catalogues Management

Let’s go back for a moment to the Middle Ages, when all the foundations of the socio-economic system were really established that we know and manage nowadays.

In a small village that is well known for its numerous oat fields, a farmer was eating porridge for breakfast while he sorrowfully looked towards his vegetable patch on which only cauliflower used to grow. Suddenly, an idea sprang to his mind: that difference could mean a business opportunity, so he soon started to take boxes of cauliflowers to other villagers in exchange for a certain amount of money. He developed a B2C (Business-to-Consumer) trade model (besides making the first move for the whole modern network of boxes with fresh veggies).

Spring has just begun and we have to start thinking about the perfect accessories to shine this summer. In the age when the online stores are going crazy preparing the launch of this summer season. Calm down – with this tips your e-commerce will be a success this season.

#1.Set a specific goal for this new season

Every time we speak about campaign planning you have to understand you’re chasing a goal. No goals, no results. You need to set a common objective of the summer campaign, and then you have to set the goals as the launch date approaches. It’s about connecting bridges until finally conquering the castle and achieving maximum success. The most common for a summer campaign is to set “Increase sales regarding last year’s” as an objective, but they can be infinite other objectives, like, “increase sales in a specific geographic area” or simply “increase sales directed to a specific target”. The objective of the campaign is a task for your marketing team but it’s very important for it to have the following characteristics:

#It’s realistic. Depending on the sector some numbers can be more realistic than others but the target must be achievable.

#It’s measurable. It’s important there are numbers in there, for example “Increase 3% of the sales.”

#It’s a challenge for your company. That who dreams can make a dream come true, that who doesn’t dream will never do it.

In the last few years, there has been a downturn in the economy in most fields, as a result of low consumption we can see companies that had to shut down and a higher rate of unemployment that will definitely keep generating a lesser need of consumption.

Facing this situation, there is still a market holding up, the e-commerce, that has not only dealt with the overwhelming effects of the crisis but also continues growing enormously. We live in a society that has a different path to the one believed years ago and they way to consume has also changed, the multichannel marketing. This concept is basically shopping through different physical channels (traditional shopping) online (e-commerce or apps), or mixed, a more frequent reality in our cities.

We are going to make emphasis on three main concepts obtained from the previous study that will explain in detail the situation of online shopping in Spain and which fields or markets are more successful.

#1.The electronic commerce is at the top and growing

We are currently going over the 4000 millions of euros of business volume in relation to e-commerce. In just 5 years, we have been able to double these numbers, imagine what’s ahead!

Between your online store and Sales Layer there are only 3 steps to take so that managing the information of your products for e-commerce, market places, mobile apps or paper catalogues, becomes a really simple task and although you it’s hard to believe it, even an enjoyable one.

So you’re very close to changing the way you work, gaining simplicity and recovering a lot of the time lost in using your traditional products management system.

Step 1: Customize Sales Layer according to your needs

The first thing we will ask from you is to choose the languages ​​you need to work with for your products. It all depends on where your markets are. If you sell in the United States, France and Russia, just choose English, French and Russian. The possibilities even include Chinese.

Then, you need to enter the groups of products on sale, for example, if you sell clothes, bags and jewellery, you would create three groups, one for each type of product.

These large groups have categories and subcategories, which also are included by our tool that lets you organize the information in your e-commerce as it suits you best.

All right! We assembled and structured our shop, now what? On to step 2!

2. Let’s get rid of those Excel sheets

Next we enter all that data into the Sales Layer system for all the products we manage. The most common method is to have them in Excel or CSV files. That is, we have a number of fields in which all the information of the products that we have to work with appears.

The appearance of these Excel sheets is something like this:

Well, what we do is to import all the data so that with one click, it is converted into aesthetic pages that include fields that appeared in our Excel, and is also editable so we can modify, include or exclude anything as it may be necessary. If the products were assigned an image link, this is also entered in the records and the tool generates different image sizes which can be useful for different applications. You can also create your own custom size according to the needs of your sales platforms or promotion. The process would be this:

This step will serve to gather information about the products we want to appear in different sales channels and switching from working with excel sheets to working with these data sheets, it’s a lot nicer, don’t you think?

If you work with catalogues, e.g. for offline sales, you can also configure all the data for inputting it into the paper catalogue from our tool because Sales Layer is connected online with InDesign, the software of choice for designing catalogues.

3. And the icing on the cake! Image editing and translations

Sales Layer provides some additional services to enrich the customer experience and make life easier: photo retouching for product images and translating texts. These are two very important aspects if we want to provide a good image and if our intention is to reach an international market.

Thanks to our partner ProRetoque, from Sales Layer, touch-ups to our images can be automated. For example you can sharpen the image and replace the background with a white or colour background. Image is an essential part of online sales where the user relies on pictures as one of the most important elements of decision making when it comes to the purchase. In this way we ensure that all images managed through Sales Layer have the highest possible quality without the user having any knowledge of retouching, as ProRetoque does it for us in less than 24 hours.

For translating texts into other languages, our partner Gengo has a lot to offer, as it has over 13,000 translators around the world that are available to our Sales Layer customers thereby ensuring product information is correctly translated in the language we need for our potential market, and all without leaving the platform.

Once all this information is ready, you only have to connect Sales Layer with your online sales channels (shop, marketplaces, apps) something that Sales Layer manages automatically and in one single click. From this moment, it only remains necessary to keep the product sheets updated, but even this process will be much more agile, simple and practical than you may think thanks to Sales Layer.

Any questions? We have many ways to help you. We have video tutorials and online assistance from the platform, by telephone or by mail. We are at your disposal to help you manage your different sales channels and make it an enjoyable experience.

There are many marketplaces where companies can sell their products online. In fact there are so many that the real question is which one or opt for. eBay and Amazon are the undisputed leaders that count with a huge amount of users – a factor that makes them the most attractive platforms for online sales. But there are also other elements to consider when choosing where to present our products, such as our target audience, because while other market places might have a lesser ratio of hits per day but, these could fit perfectly our target customer.

Are you taking advantage of Internet and mobile platforms to reach more customers? Do you know how to spotlight your product information for selling?

Until now, in order to sell products, companies have relied on physical exposures in stores and trade shows, and on piles of paper catalogs under the arm of a sales rep. With the arrival of the digital world, new media and sales channels appeared as well, and with it, the rules have changed.